Fetch Clay, Make Man at Round House Theatre

Fetch Clay, Make Man

Round House Theatre
4545 East-West Highway Bethesda

In the days before one of the most anticipated fights in boxing history, heavyweight champ Muhammad Ali forms an unlikely friendship with controversial Hollywood star Stepin Fetchit. This true story explores the improbable bond that forms between these drastically different, influential cultural icons - one a vibrant and audacious youth, the other a resentful, almost forgotten relic - as they fight to shape their legacies amidst the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. Derrick Sanders (The Raisin Cycle at CenterStage) directs Will Power’s absorbing, poetic, and humorous exploration of the true meaning of strength, resilience, and pride. Delivers “a potent and satisfying wallop” – New York Daily News

Thru - Nov 2, 2014

Price: $35 - $50

Show Type: Drama

Running Time: 2hrs, 25mins with 1 intermission

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Fetch Clay, Make Man Reviews

Average Rating based on 6 reviews

Highly Recommended
Recommended
Somewhat Recommended
Not Recommended

Washington Post - Somewhat Recommended

"...Fetch Clay, Make Man” never suggests that the role each man ultimately played in the other’s life was all that important or profound. The play, as a result, feels less like a major entry than a revealing footnote — an interesting undercard to history."

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- Peter Marks

DC Theater Arts - Highly Recommended

"...Round House Theatre, in a co-production with Marin Theatre Company, presents the DC area premiere of Will Power's Fetch Clay, Make Man, an eye-opening, truth-based account about two drastically different cultural icons who fight to shape their legacies during the Civil Rights Movement. Directed by Derrick Sanders, this riveting production explores the unlikely friendship and improbable bond between a disgraced Hollywood actor and a heavyweight boxing champ who boldly embraced controversy."

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- Sydney-Chanele Dawkins

Talkin Broadway - Recommended

"...Orman brings dignity and self-possession—as well as a dark sense of humor—to his portrayal of Fetchit. Unlike the lazy, shiftless character he often played, Fetchit was a shrewd manipulator; Power inserts scenes of the actor's negotiations with studio head William Fox (Robert Sicular), who earlier had fought his own battles to succeed as the son of poor Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe. The other cast members are Jefferson A. Russell as Brother Rashid, Ali's no-nonsense bodyguard, and Katherine Renee Turner as Ali's first wife Sonji, dealing with the stresses of being a traditional Muslim wife as opposed to a fun-loving young African-American woman."

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- Susan Berlin

Washington City Paper - Recommended

"...Will Power's persuasive, funny, fully engrossing drama, first staged in 2010, feels oddly relaxed considering how tense this historical moment really was. Ali's life had been threatened, but like the champ himself, Power-who performed his hip-hop solo piece Flow at Studio theatre back in 2005-chooses to worry only about his dignity. In Power's version, the 23-year-old "Louisville Lip" has summoned the 62-year-old actor to Lewiston, Maine, the backwater that got the fight after bigger markets refused to host it, citing fears of violence and other concerns."

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- Chris Klimek

MD Theatre Guide - Highly Recommended

"...There aren't many shows around that address so many still timely issues of race and role models, featuring casts this tight. The result is an exhilarating night at the theater that, dare I say it, could also be considered a knock out."

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- Roger Catlin

DCTheatreScene - Highly Recommended

“When you wear the mask for so long,” Lincoln Perry, a/k/a Stepin Fetchit (Roscoe Orman) warns Sonji Clay (Katherine Renee Turner), the wife of world heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali, f/k/a Cassius Clay (Eddie Ray Jackson) in this astonishing play, “you can’t take it off.” Art imitates life, but sometimes life becomes art its own damn self, and this was one of those times. Let me give you some of the details:

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- Tim Treanor

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Fetch Clay, Make Man at Round House Theatre